First vaccine to help control some autism symptoms

Apr. 24, 2013 ? A first-ever vaccine created by University of Guelph researchers for gut bacteria common in autistic children may also help control some autism symptoms.

The groundbreaking study by Brittany Pequegnat and Guelph chemistry professor Mario Monteiro appears this month in the journal Vaccine.

They developed a carbohydrate-based vaccine against the gut bug Clostridium bolteae.

C. bolteae is known to play a role in gastrointestinal disorders, and it often shows up in higher numbers in the GI tracts of autistic children than in those of healthy kids.

More than 90 per cent of children with autism spectrum disorders suffer from chronic, severe gastrointestinal symptoms. Of those, about 75 per cent suffer from diarrhea, according to current literature.

"Little is known about the factors that predispose autistic children to C. bolteae," said Monteiro. Although most infections are handled by some antibiotics, he said, a vaccine would improve current treatment.

"This is the first vaccine designed to control constipation and diarrhea caused by C. bolteae and perhaps control autism-related symptoms associated with this microbe," he said.

Autism cases have increased almost sixfold over the past 20 years, and scientists don't know why. Although many experts point to environmental factors, others have focused on the human gut.

Some researchers believe toxins and/or metabolites produced by gut bacteria, including C. bolteae, may be associated with symptoms and severity of autism, especially regressive autism.

Pequegnat, a master's student, and Monteiro used bacteria grown by Mike Toh, a Guelph PhD student in the lab of microbiology professor Emma Allen-Vercoe.

The new anti- C. bolteae vaccine targets the specific complex polysaccharides, or carbohydrates, on the surface of the bug.

The vaccine effectively raised C. bolteae-specific antibodies in rabbits. Doctors could also use the vaccine-induced antibodies to quickly detect the bug in a clinical setting, said Monteiro.

The vaccine might take more than 10 years to work through preclinical and human trials, and it may take even longer before a drug is ready for market, Monteiro said.

"But this is a significant first step in the design of a multivalent vaccine against several autism-related gut bacteria," he said.

Monteiro has studied sugar-based vaccines for two other gastric pathogens: Campylobacter jejuni, which causes travellers' diarrhea; and Clostridium difficile, which causes antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

The research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

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Journal Reference:

1. Brittany Pequegnat, Martin Sagermann, Moez Valliani, Michael Toh, Herbert Chow, Emma Allen-Vercoe, Mario A. Monteiro. A vaccine and diagnostic target for Clostridium bolteae, an autism-associated bacterium. Vaccine, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.04.018

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/0W9_AFl8Wv4/130424112309.htm

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Massive galaxy had intense burst of star formation when universe was only 6 percent of current age

Apr. 17, 2013 ? Astronomers using a world-wide collection of telescopes have discovered the most prolific star factory in the Universe, surprisingly in a galaxy so distant that they see as it was when the Universe was only six percent of its current age.

The galaxy, dubbed HFLS3, 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, is producing the equivalent of nearly 3,000 Suns per year, a rate more than 2,000 times that of our own Milky Way. The galaxy is massive, with a huge reservoir of gas from which to form new stars.

"This is the most detailed look into the physical properties of such a distant galaxy ever made," said Dominik Riechers, of Cornell University. "Getting detailed information on galaxies like this is vitally important to understanding how galaxies, as well as groups and clusters of galaxies, formed in the early Universe," he added.

To accurately determine the galaxy's distance and characteristics required observations with 12 international telescope facilities, including both orbiting and ground-based telescopes. The telescopes ranged from visible-light telescopes, to instruments working at infrared, millimeter-wave, and radio wavelengths. The National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) provided information about cold molecular gas from which new stars are being formed and the radio waves emitted by the remnants of deceased, short-lived, very massive stars.

The scientists found that the galaxy has a mass of stars nearly 40 billion times the mass of the Sun, and gas and dust totalling more than 100 billion times the mass of the Sun, all surrounded by enough mysterious dark matter to eventually build an entire cluster of galaxies.

"This galaxy is proof that very intense bursts of star formation existed only 880 million years after the Big Bang," Riechers said. "We've gotten a valuable look at a very important epoch in the development of the first galaxies," he added. The Universe currently is about 13.7 billion years old.

"Key information about the massive amount of gas in this galaxy came from the VLA observations of radio emission from Carbon Monoxide," said Chris Carilli, Chief Scientist of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, who was not part of the research team. "The techniques used by this team, along with improved technical capabilities available now and coming in the future, will allow the study of more such galaxies, and provide a much better understanding of how the first galaxies formed during the Universe's youth," Carilli added.

"We anticipate learning more about such galaxies using both the VLA and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)," Riechers said. "The VLA can give us information about the cold gas and radio emission in these galaxies, while ALMA can tell us about the warmer gas and dust," he added.

In addition to the VLA, the astronomers used the Herschel Space Observatory, the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, the Submillimeter Array, the IRAM 30-meter Telescope, the William Herschel Telescope and Gran Telescopio Canarias, the Keck Observatory, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The large research team included astronomers from Europe, Japan, and the U.S. The scientists reported their findings in the journal Nature.

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Journal Reference:

1. Dominik A. Riechers, C. M. Bradford, D. L. Clements, C. D. Dowell, I. P?rez-Fournon, R. J. Ivison, C. Bridge, A. Conley, Hai Fu, J. D. Vieira, J. Wardlow, J. Calanog, A. Cooray, P. Hurley, R. Neri, J. Kamenetzky, J. E. Aguirre, B. Altieri, V. Arumugam, D. J. Benford, M. B?thermin, J. Bock, D. Burgarella, A. Cabrera-Lavers, S. C. Chapman, P. Cox, J. S. Dunlop, L. Earle, D. Farrah, P. Ferrero, A. Franceschini, R. Gavazzi, J. Glenn, E. A. Gonzalez Solares, M. A. Gurwell, M. Halpern, E. Hatziminaoglou, A. Hyde, E. Ibar, A. Kov?cs, M. Krips, R. E. Lupu, P. R. Maloney, P. Martinez-Navajas, H. Matsuhara, E. J. Murphy, B. J. Naylor, H. T. Nguyen, S. J. Oliver, A. Omont, M. J. Page, G. Petitpas, N. Rangwala, I. G. Roseboom, D. Scott, A. J. Smith, J. G. Staguhn, A. Streblyanska, A. P. Thomson, I. Valtchanov, M. Viero, L. Wang, M. Zemcov, J. Zmuidzinas. A dust-obscured massive maximum-starburst galaxy at a redshift of 6.34. Nature, 2013; 496 (7445): 329 DOI: 10.1038/nature12050

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/A-_dmeCrOp4/130417131819.htm

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Biotech Stock News Alert Aethlon Medical OTCBB AEMD Discloses Cancer and Infectious Disease Therapy Presentation at ISEV 2013

SAN DIEGO - April 18, 2013 (Investorideas.com newswire) - Aethlon Medical, Inc. (OTCBB: AEMD), disclosed that a poster presentation entitled: "Extracorporeal Exosome Removal: A Therapeutic Strategy to Address an Evolutionary Survival Mechanism Shared by Cancer and Infectious Viral Pathogens," is being presented today at the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) 2013 conference being held in Boston, MA. Dr. Annette Marleau, Director of Tumor Immunology at Aethlon Medical will give the presentation. Information related to ISEV 2013 can be accessed online at: www.isevmeeting.org Join Investor Ideas Members to access the Renewable Energy stocks directory, water stocks, biotech stocks, defense stocks directories and the Insiders Corner

The Aethlon presentation discusses the specificity of the Aethlon Hemopurifier? to address evolved glycopathogen targets that are instrumental in cancer and infectious disease progression. Significant points addressed in the presentation include emerging knowledge of exosome secretion, which is a notable feature of malignancy owing to the diverse roles of these particles in tumor-mediated immune suppression, angiogenesis, metastasis, and resistance to therapeutic agents. As cancer-secreted exosomes remain a critical target not addressed by drug therapies, the Company is expanding the potential utility of the Hemopurifier? to include cancer. In this role, the Hemopurifier? provides an adjuvant strategy to improve current and emerging cancer treatment outcomes without adding drug toxicity. To date, pre-clinical Hemopurifier? studies have validated the capture of exosomes underlying breast cancer, metastatic melanoma, ovarian cancer, lymphoma, and colorectal cancer.

The Aethlon Hemopurifier? consists of the lectin Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) immobilized in the outer-capillary space of a plasma membrane device that is compatible for use with standard CRRT and dialysis units. GNA-based capture is mediated by unique high mannose signatures abundant on the surface of cancer-secreted exosomes as well as glycoproteins that reside on the outer membrane of infectious viral pathogens.

In human studies of treatment naive HIV and Hepatitis-C (HCV) infected individuals, Hemopurifier? therapy demonstrated average viral load reductions of greater than 50% during single four-hour treatment applications. A three-treatment Hemopurifier? protocol combined with interferon-based standard-of-care resulted in undetectable HCV in as little as seven days in hard-to-treat genotype-1 patients. In this same clinical program, post-treatment elution studies documented the capture of up to 300 billion HCV copies by the Hemopurifier? during a single six-hour treatment. A human feasibility study to initiate HCV human studies in the United States is pending IDE approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Based on human treatment experience and exosome capture validations, the Company has identified candidate research centers to conduct a Hemopurifier? therapy study in cancer patients.

About Aethlon Medical

Aethlon Medical creates innovative medical devices that address unmet medical needs in cancer, infectious disease, and other life-threatening conditions. Our Aethlon ADAPT? System is a revenue-stage technology platform that provides the basis for a new class of devices the rapid, yet selective removal of disease promoting particles from the entire circulatory system. At present, The Aethlon ADAPT? product pipeline includes the Aethlon Hemopurifier? to address infectious disease and cancer, and a medical device being developed under a 5-year contract with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to reduce the incidence of sepsis in combat-injured soldiers. For more information, please visit www.aethlonmedical.com.

About The Aethlon Hemopurifier?

The Aethlon Hemopurifier? is a first-in-class medical device that selectively targets the rapid clearance of infectious viral pathogens and immunosuppressive proteins from the entire circulatory system. In the treatment of Hepatitis C virus (HCV), human studies have demonstrated that Hemopurifier? therapy may improve immediate, rapid and sustained virologic response rates when administered in the first few days of standard-of-care drug therapy. In addition to accelerating viral load depletion, post-treatment analysis of the Hemopurifier? has documented the capture of up to 300 billion HCV copies of HCV during a single six-hour treatment. Access to Hemopurifier? therapy is available on a compassionate-use basis through the Medanta Medicity Institute (Medicity), a leading center for medical tourism in India. The Medicity is offering treatment access to infected individuals who previously failed or subsequently relapsed standard-of-care drug regimens. The Hemopurifier? is also being offered as a salvage therapy to infected individuals who suffer a viral breakthrough during standard-of-care therapy. U.S. studies of the Hemopurifier? are currently pending approval of an IDE submitted to FDA.

The Aethlon Hemopurifier? and Cancer

In addition to the opportunity to address a broad-spectrum of infectious viral pathogens, the Hemopurifier? has been discovered to capture tumor-derived exosomes underlying several forms of cancer. Tumor-derived exosomes have recently emerged to be a vital therapeutic target in cancer care. These microvesicular particles suppress the immune response in cancer patients through apoptosis of immune cells and their quantity in circulation correlates directly with disease progression. Beyond possessing immunosuppressive properties, tumor-derived exosomes facilitate tumor growth, metastasis, and the development of drug resistance. By addressing this unmet medical need, the Hemopurifier? is positioned as an adjunct to improve established cancer treatment regimens.

Certain statements herein may be forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Aethlon Medical, Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, that the company can successfully protect its intellectual property, that removal of exosomes from the human body will impact or lead to successful treatment of cancer, or that exosomes are the cause of tumor growth and progression, that the FDA will not approve the initiation of the Company's clinical programs or provide market clearance of the company's products, future human studies whether revenue or non-revenue generating of the Aethlon ADAPT? system or the Aethlon Hemopurifier? as an adjunct therapy to improve patient responsiveness to established cancer or hepatitis C therapies or as a standalone cancer or hepatitis C therapy, the Company's ability to raise capital when needed, the Company's ability to complete the development of its planned products, the Company's ability to manufacture its products either internally or through outside companies and provide its services, the impact of government regulations, patent protection on the Company's proprietary technology, product liability exposure, uncertainty of market acceptance, competition, technological change, and other risk factors. In such instances, actual results could differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, including the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions and other risk factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contacts:

James A. Joyce Chairman and CEO 858.459.7800 x301 jj(at)aethlonmedical.com

Jim Frakes Chief Financial Officer 858.459.7800 x300 jfrakes(at)aethlonmedical.com

Marc Robins 877.276.2467 mr(at)aethlonmedical.com

Published at Investorideas.com Newswire

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BC Residents and Investor Disclaimer: Effective September 15 2008 - all BC investors should review all OTC and Pink sheet listed companies for adherence in new disclosure filings and filing appropriate documents with Sedar. Read for more info: http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=6894

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Warmest summers in last two decades in northern latitudes were unprecedented in six centuries

Apr. 11, 2013 ? Harvard researchers are adding nuance to our understanding of how modern and historical temperatures compare. Through their statistical model of Arctic temperatures and how they relate to instrumental and proxy records, Martin Tingley, a research associate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Peter Huybers, professor of earth and planetary sciences, have shown that the warmest summers in the last two decades were unprecedented in six centuries.

The work is described in paper published in the April 11 issue of Nature.

"We call upon multiple proxies -- including those derived from trees, ice cores, and lake sediments -- to reconstruct temperature back through time using a Bayesian statistical approach," Tingley said. "What we are trying to do is put statistical inference of past changes in temperature on a more solid and complete footing.

"Saying this year is warmer than all other years included in the reconstruction is a very different thing than saying this year is warmer than a particular year in the past," he added. "You have to think about the uncertainty in the temperature estimate for each year, and then be able to say that recent years are warmer than all past years simultaneously."

To assess such probabilities, Tingley and Huybers use a statistical model that gives a large ensemble of equally likely temperature histories for the last 600 years, as opposed to the single best estimate provided by most other reconstructions of the planet's temperature.

"By sorting through these many plausible realizations of what Earth's temperature may have looked like," Huybers said, "it becomes possible to find the probability associated with a great variety of relevant quantities, such as whether the 2010 Russian heat wave was more anomalous than all other events or whether the trend in average temperature over the last 100 years is uniquely large."

Perhaps the most basic quantity is average Arctic temperature, and Tingley said that the summers of 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2011 were each warmer than all years prior to 2005 in at least 95 percent of the ensemble members. Furthermore, the rate of temperature increase observed over the last century is, with 99 percent probability, greater in magnitude than centennial trends in the last 600 years. At a regional level, the summer of 2010 featured the warmest year in western Russia, with 99 percent probability, and also featured the warmest year in western Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, with 90 percent probability.

Also notable: Although summer temperatures are clearly on the rise, the researchers found no indication that temperature variability has changed. Events such as the 2010 Russian heat wave and the 2003 western European heat wave are consistent with the increase in mean temperature, after accounting for the fact that they are selected as some of the hottest years and locations.

"Insomuch as the past is prologue for the future," Tingley said, "these results suggest that the hottest summers will track along with increases in mean temperature." He explained, "If instead the distribution of temperatures were becoming wider, as well as shifting toward higher values, then the probability of extreme events would go up even more rapidly."

But Tingley also acknowledged the limitations of the results and the need for further work. "The proxies, unlike thermometers, generally only give information about seasonal average temperatures, and we have not explored changes in variability at the daily and weekly timescales associated with weather patterns," he said. "It will be interesting to further explore instrumental records and higher resolution proxies for trends at these shorter timescales."

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Journal Reference:

1. Martin P. Tingley, Peter Huybers. Recent temperature extremes at high northern latitudes unprecedented in the past 600 years. Nature, 2013; 496 (7444): 201 DOI: 10.1038/nature11969

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/a_7aFnNqc44/130411194843.htm

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Otterbox iPhone 4 / 4S Defender case with iON Intelligence launching April 18th for $130 (video)

It was at CES that we were first introduced to Otterbox's Defender case with iON Intelligence, which promises to keep phones alive in two ways: by shielding them from physical abuse, and by serving up extra juice whenever they're thirsty. Otterbox has now told us the new case is nearly ready to bounce off hit the streets, and will be launching on April 18th for the iPhone 4 and 4S. The case combines the familiar hard shell, rubbery sleeve and screen protector for laughing off falls, with a 1,450mAh battery -- that's a sliver bigger than the 4 / 4S built-ins -- to effectively double capacity. LEDs on the case let you know how much extra juice is left, and the companion iON Intelligence app automatically redirects power when it's needed, and monitors usage to predict how long 'til your next charge. The iPhone 4 / 4S model will be available from Otterbox's online den for $129.95, and others are in the works for "other top iOS and Android devices." Check out the promo videos below for a full product walkthrough.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Software, Mobile

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Roku passes 5 million players sold in the US, shows off with a few more stats

Five years after the original Roku launched and just weeks after the release of the Roku 3, the company has announced lifetime US sales of 5 million units. The proclamation comes attached to a detailed infographic (linked below) that breaks down its last five years of progress, plus stats like where it's most popular (Lexington, KY) and the most minutes streamed by one player in one week (10,080.) That's quite a marathon session -- Lost plus House of Cards doesn't even get you halfway -- but its stats claim 25 percent of players stream more than 35 hours per week.

The last time we checked in on Roku sales, it was chasing the million unit mark alongside Apple's hobby. The Apple TV has since risen to 5 million sold in the last fiscal year, buoyed by the AirPlay feature that makes it an attractive accessory for the company's other devices. To Roku's favor, it claims 43 percent of owners say it's their preferred source of video for their TV. It's come a long way from its start as a Netflix Player with more than 750 channels available including Time Warner Cable and HBO Go, which makes CEO Anthony Wood's claim that the "future of TV is streaming" look closer than ever.

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Widely used filtering material adds arsenic to beers

Apr. 7, 2013 ? The mystery of how arsenic levels in beer sold in Germany could be higher than in the water or other ingredients used to brew the beer has been solved, scientists announced in New Orleans April 7 at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Mehmet Coelhan, Ph.D., and colleagues said the discovery could be of importance for breweries and other food processors elsewhere that use the same filtering technology implicated in the elevated arsenic levels in some German beers. Coelhan's team at the Technische Universit?t in Munich set out to solve that riddle after testing 140 samples of beers sold in Germany as part of a monitoring program. The monitoring checked levels of heavy metals like arsenic and lead, as well as natural toxins that can contaminate grain used in brewing beer, pesticides and other undesirable substances.

Coelhan explained that the World Health Organization uses 10 micrograms per liter of arsenic in drinking water as a limit. However, some beers contained higher arsenic levels. "When arsenic level in beer is higher than in the water used during brewing, this excess arsenic must come from other sources," Coelhan noted. "That was a mystery to us. As a consequence, we analyzed all materials, including the malt and the hops used during brewing for the presence of arsenic."

They concluded that the arsenic was released into the beer from a filtering material called kieselguhr, or diatomaceous earth, used to remove yeast, hops and other particles and give the beer a crystal clear appearance. Diatomaceous earth consists of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae that lived millions of years ago. It finds wide use in filtering beer, wine and is an ingredient in other products.

"We concluded that kieselguhr may be a significant source of arsenic contamination in beer," Coelhan said. "This conclusion was supported by analysis of kieselguhr samples. These tests revealed that some kieselguhr samples release arsenic. The resulting arsenic levels were only slightly elevated, and it is not likely that people would get sick from drinking beers made with this filtration method because of the arsenic. The arsenic is still at low levels -- the risk of alcohol poisoning is a far more realistic concern, as stated in previous studies on the topic."

Coelhan pointed out that beers produced in at least six other countries had higher arsenic amounts than German beers, according to a report published four years ago. He said that breweries, wineries and other food processors that use kieselguhr should be aware that the substance can release arsenic. Substitutes for kieselguhr are available, he noted, and simple measures like washing kieselguhr with water can remove the arsenic before use.

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AP source: FBI eyes possible extortion at Rutgers

The FBI is investigating whether a former Rutgers basketball employee tried to extort the university before he made videos that showed ex-coach Mike Rice shoving and kicking players and berating them with gay slurs.

Meanwhile, Robert Morris University is expected to report in coming days what it has learned in its own inquiry on the three years Rice spent as head coach there.

A person familiar with the FBI's probe told The Associated Press on Sunday that investigators are interested in Eric Murdock, who left his job as the men's basketball program's player development director last year and later provided the video to university officials and ESPN.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the inquiry has not been announced. The investigation was first reported last week by ESPN and The New York Times.

A spokeswoman for the FBI's Newark office said the agency would not say whether there is an investigation. Murdock's lawyer did not return a call to the AP on Sunday. A Rutgers spokesman referred questions to the FBI.

A December letter from Murdock's lawyer to a lawyer representing Rutgers requested $950,000 to settle employment issues and said that if the university did not agree by Jan. 4, Murdock was prepared to file a lawsuit. The letter was obtained last week by the AP and other media outlets.

No settlement has been made. The video became public last week, and Murdock on Friday filed a lawsuit against the university, contending he was fired because he was a whistleblower trying to bring to light Rice's behavior.

The video's release last week set off a chain reaction that led to Rice's firing and the resignations of athletic director Tim Pernetti, the university's top in-house lawyer and an assistant basketball coach. Some critics want the university's president, Robert Barchi, to resign.

Barchi will hold a town hall meeting Monday at the school's Newark campus, where he is expected to face some students and faculty who say they lost confidence in him even before the controversy over Rice's firing. They have said his plan to reorganize the state's higher education system shortchanges the Rutgers campuses in Camden and Newark.

At a news conference last week, Barchi said the firing and resignations likely never would have happened unless Murdock provided the video to ESPN. Barchi said he did not see the video himself until after it had been made public.

Murdock, a New Jersey native who played for seven NBA teams from 1991 to 2000, was on the initial staff Rice assembled when he became the Rutgers coach in 2010. He left the team last year, though there are conflicting stories about the circumstances.

Murdock has said Rice fired him after he skipped a session of Rice's summer basketball camp, but has said he was targeted because he had spoken with others about Rice's conduct at practice. The university found in a report that Murdock was not actually fired and that he could have continued working at the school.

After Murdock left, he spoke with university officials about his allegations against Rice. He also used an open public records request to obtain hundreds of hours of videos of basketball practice. It's not clear who shot the original footage, but it was edited into the half-hour video later given to the university that touched off a scandal last week.

The university report on Rice, which was completed in December but not made public until Friday, criticized the video provided by Murdock as taken many situations out of context. While the report found fault with Rice's behavior in several instances, it also said he did not create a hostile work environment, as Murdock had suggested.

The report also said that Murdock had claimed some violations of NCAA rules ? including that he and others in the program paid players ? but he did not provide evidence.

After a review, university officials agreed to suspend Rice without pay for three games, fine him $50,000, send him to anger-management counseling and monitor his behavior.

Barchi said when he first saw the video last week he immediately decided Rice could not continue as coach.

Robert Morris officials said athletic director Craig Coleman could speak about the matter Monday or Tuesday. Rice coached there before leaving for Rutgers in 2010.

Murdock told ESPN in an interview last week that coaches brawled with players during Rice's time at the Pennsylvania college. Robert Morris officials initially said that the video of Rice at Rutgers was not representative of how he acted at Robert Morris.

____

Associated Press writer Katie Zezima in Newark and AP sports writer Tim Sullivan contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-fbi-eyes-possible-extortion-rutgers-171147758--spt.html

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Colo. suspect slipped ankle bracelet

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Colorado Department of Corrections shows paroled inmate Evan Spencer Ebel. A clerical error allowed Ebel, suspected of killing Colorado?s prisons chief, to be released from custody about four years early, officials said Monday, April 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Colorado Department of Corrections, File)

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Colorado Department of Corrections shows paroled inmate Evan Spencer Ebel. A clerical error allowed Ebel, suspected of killing Colorado?s prisons chief, to be released from custody about four years early, officials said Monday, April 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Colorado Department of Corrections, File)

DENVER (AP) ? The ex-convict suspected in the killing of Colorado's prison chief slipped off his electronic monitoring bracelet and escaped before anyone noticed he was missing ? all after he was mistakenly released from prison four years early.

A corrections computer system recorded that Evan Spencer Ebel's bracelet stopped working on March 14, according to documents released Tuesday. Officers learned he had fled on March 19, the day Tom Clements was fatally shot as he answered the front door at his home.

The detail is the latest example of how Ebel fell through the cracks of the criminal justice system in the years before his January release. On Monday, court officials acknowledged that a clerical error allowed Ebel to leave prison four years early because his most recent felony conviction was incorrectly recorded on his record.

"We have to do better in the future," said Tim Hand, director of the Department of Correction's parole division.

Ebel, who died after a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies, had been a model parolee until his electronic monitoring bracelet stopped working. Before that, he called in daily, even once calling in alarm because no one had requested his weekly random urinalysis test to show he hadn't been using drugs.

His father provided him housing and a job at his law firm, but on the afternoon of March 14, a "tamper alert" automatically went to a prison computer system showing the bracelet had stopped working, records show. Two days later, corrections officials called Ebel and told him to come in to repair the bracelet. He did not show up.

On March 17, Nathan Leon, a father of three and Domino's delivery man, was shot to death after responding to an order for pizza in Denver. Ebel is suspected in the killing.

It was not until March 18 that parole officers spoke to Ebel's father, who told them he feared his son had fled and gave them permission to search his apartment. The next day, two parole officers saw Ebel had taken a large amount of clothing and apparently fled. That night, Clements was shot.

An arrest warrant for Ebel's parole violations was issued March 20. The following day he became a suspect in both killings after dying in a shootout with authorities in Texas. The gun Ebel used was the same one used to shoot and kill Clements.

Ebel had been flagged as a high-risk parolee and went straight from solitary confinement back out onto the streets in late January. But parole officials said they were impressed with his first six weeks out of custody. While many high risk offenders slip up and violate parole in their first months, Ebel complied with all the terms of his agreement.

"From the 28th of January to the middle of March, we had an individual who was calling in every day, who was employed, who showed no indication that he would do the kind of things that we now know" he did, Hand said.

Judicial officials acknowledged Monday that Ebel shouldn't have been released in January.

In 2008, Ebel pleaded guilty in rural Fremont County to assaulting a prison officer. In the plea deal, Ebel was to be sentenced to up to four additional years in prison, to be served after he completed the eight-year sentence that put him behind bars in 2005, according to a statement from Colorado's 11th Judicial District.

According to court transcripts released Tuesday, Ebel told the judge he'd be 33 when he was released, and asked for a more lenient sentence. The judge told him that four years on top of his previous sentence was fair.

The judge, however, didn't say the sentence was meant to be "consecutive," or in addition to, Ebel's current one, so it went to the prison system as a sentence to be served simultaneously. Prison officials say they had no way of knowing the intention had been for Ebel to remain behind bars long after his Jan. 28 release date.

Charles Barton, chief judge of the 11th Judicial District, and court administrator Walter Blair, said in a statement that the court regrets the oversight "and extends condolences to the families of Mr. Nathan Leon and Mr. Tom Clements."

Leon's widow said the apology wasn't going to cut it. "How do I tell my 4-year-olds: 'Daddy was murdered because of a clerical error,'" Katherine Leon told KUSA-TV in Denver.

Leon's father-in-law told AP he had no immediate comment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-02-Corrections%20Director%20Killed/id-fd6f75567aba4f398567d9a47a471234

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The Corsair : The art of war

A man opens the door for a woman at the entrance to The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles on the on the opening day of the war photography exhibit on March 23. War Photography is an exhibition displaying images of armed conflict and its aftermath and will be showing through June 2. (Photo by Daniel McCarty)

Ryan Sindon
April 2, 2013
Filed under Arts & Entertainment

A solider in his helmet was covered in dirt and grime. His eyes looked like they told a story only another solider would understand, with a cigarette in his mouth, clean and ready to burn.

That scene and others were on display at the opening of the Annenberg Space for Photography?s new exhibit, ?War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath.?

The gallery had paintings and war photographs dating as far back as the late 19th century. The photos went beyond soldiers, dead bodies, guns, and bombs, with the display broken up into twelve different subsections, each portraying an aspect of war.

The subsections were Advent of War, Recruitment, Training and Embarkation, The Wait, Patrol and Troop Movement, The Fight, Aftermath, Death, Refugees, and Civilians.

To the right of the entrance, four pictures depicted the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001 before they fell. The photos of the twin towers were next to a television screen that played clips from World War II.
?I had a such strong feeling in the exhibit,? said Ellie Smith, a former photography teacher at Beverly Hills Adult School who attended the opening. ?The pictures have a lot to do with the philosophy of the decisive moment.?

Photojournalist Trishna Patel said that the images are ?powerful and leave you speechless.?

?I?m curious to see the Vietnam photos because that is the war I have heard a lot about, but I don?t know so much about it,? attendee Dina Rivas said before walking into the exhibit.

One of the Vietnam photos on display was the image of the ?flower child? Jan Rose Kasmir placing a flower in the barrel of a gun held by a United States solider during the October 1967 march on the Pentagon.

In the center of the gallery, there was a short film played called, ?The War Photographers,? which is specific to the Los Angeles exhibit, according to the Annenberg?s website.

The documentary features over 500 photographs from six war photographers.

?It opens your eyes to another world,? amateur photographer Nick Filby said of the film. ?You never think about the person behind the camera.?

Jason Stabile, an employee for the Annenberg, said he is impacted by the people who come see the exhibit.

?It?s not the pictures that affect us the most,? Stabile said. ?The emotional impact of the pictures are there, but it?s the people?s reactions that affect us.?

The photos in the war exhibit are open to the public, but they are not censored.

The Annenberg is located at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. Admission is free. The space is open Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Source: http://www.thecorsaironline.com/arts-entertainment/2013/04/02/the-art-of-war/

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Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Filming This Summer

As Brendan said last month, Hot Tub Time Machine had the reputation of being a flop based on a mediocre $14 million opening weekend, but the movie had legs, reaching $50 million domestic and it is exactly the kind of R-rated comedy that finds a second life on DVD and cable reruns.? This explains why MGM has been developing a sequel with director Steve Pink.? While we previously reported that?Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke were set to reprise their roles in the sequel, the big story was that?John Cusack might not be coming back.

However, when I spoke to Robinson earlier today at WonderCon for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg?s This Is The End, he told me ?negotiations are still going? with the cast and he made it sound like Cusack might be coming back.? In addition, he said filming begins this June and he?s seen an early version of the script.? Since the first film featured a tremendous amount of improv, I?d imagine whatever script he?s seen will have a lot of changes on set.? Hit the jump to see what Robinson had to say about the sequel and to watch the trailer for the first film. ?Look for more of my interview with Robinson soon.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927151/news/1927151/

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